


Day 217

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [217]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:01:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25740253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [217]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 1





	Day 217

Brennan walked a tiered circle around the giant tree in the middle of the Alienage. She could have passed this patrol on to someone else, anyone else, but that’s not what Aveline would have done. Brennan would never be as good a guard as Aveline but that shouldn’t stop her from trying.

She carried no torch with her, so as not to ruin her night-vision, and was making up limericks in tune to the music that could be heard drifting down from Lowtown. No music in the Alienage though. The rest of the city was celebrating but that attitude here was much more somber. There had been a huge debate on whether or not they should participate in the celebrations, by not participating, they marked themselves as separate from the rest of the city. In the end elders decided that the less attention they drew to themselves the better. In any event, any celebrations here would have been at least partially forced. Every elf here had lost friends and family to the Qunari, either in death or conversion.

Noll and Brennan agreed that it was all but certain that some human revelers would come down and try to cause trouble. Brennan was here to try to head things off before it got that far. There were a few mercenaries standing by to step in if things got out of hand, but Brennan planned to see to it that things didn’t go that far. 

Sure enough, in the wee hours of the morning a collection of drunken men came stumbling down the steps. Brennan left her post to head them off. There were five of them, all supporting each other as they tried to keep standing. They all smelled strongly of bad ale and she was pretty sure a few of them had vomit down the fronts of their shirts.

“Good evening lads,” she said, trying to seem as friendly as possible. The leader stumbled forwards and belched in Brennan’s face. She took a step back fighting down the impulse to retch. The man smacked his lips a few times, like he was tasting his own belch.

“We were jusht dish-dishcussing a bit of theology,” he said. “Losh of people think the Qunari are them big horned okshmen. But anyone can be one. Losh o’ elvsh joined up when they attacked but when we drove the ashen giantsh away… we let the elvsh shtay.”

“Look.” Brennan said. “Why don’t you lads go have some fun tonight, eh? This is a celebration. Do you really want to ruin it by getting knifed by some elves?”

“Maybe we’ll be the one doing the knifing,” one of the ones from the back said.

“I once knew a drunkard from Lowtown,” Brennan said. “In the Alienate he thought he would throw down. But his friends they knows, t’would be better in the Rose. For one shove and he would go down.” With that she gave the leader a playful shove and he toppled into his companions and they all went down in a heap of limbs and laughter. 

The other men started teasing their friend who had lost all the bluster from himself. They spend a full ten minutes hurling friendly insults at each other before deciding that Brennan had the right of it and headed off to the Rose. Fortunately they were the biggest and most energetic group to try to make it into the Alienage that night. When morning came Brennan headed to the barrack’s blackout room to sleep the day away until she had to go back to the Alienage for another night of herding drunks.


End file.
